A top partner at an $18 billion hedge fund is going it alone after winning big on Argentina

Argentina
fans smile prior to the 2015 Rugby World Cup Bronze Final match
between South Africa and Argentina at the Olympic Stadium on
October 30, 2015 in London, United Kingdom.Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

Ben Melkman, a partner at the hedge fund Brevan Howard, has left
the firm and is working to set up his own fund, according to
people familiar with the matter.

Melkman joined the firm in 2009, having earlier worked at Morgan
Stanley and Deutsche Bank.

One senior market participant told Business Insider Melkman was
"super smart and a very talented dude." Another said a new fund
by Melkman would be "the most exciting hedge fund event
since [Greg] Coffey left GLG for Moore."

Brevan Howard, which manages about $18 billion and has offices in
London, Geneva, New York, and Hong Kong, has had a tough run. The
firm's Master Fund lost 2% last year and is down 1.8% through
April this year, and investors requested $1.4 billion in
redemptions in the first quarter, according to a person familiar
with the matter.

The fund was set up in 2002 by Alan Howard, Chris Rokos, and
other former Credit Suisse colleagues, and it became one of the
preeminent macro hedge funds in Europe.

Rokos left in 2012, and he later sued the firm to free himself
from an employment agreement that barred him from managing money
until 2018. That suit was settled last year, and Rokos is now
behind Rokos Capital Management, one of the biggest hedge fund
launches in recent memory.